


Sacrifices

by ShayneyL



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Angst, Episode: s05e06 Timeless, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-16 03:40:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20183536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShayneyL/pseuds/ShayneyL
Summary: Harry shares the message from his future self with Tom.  A little coda to "Timeless."





	Sacrifices

**Author's Note:**

> Writer's Month 2019, Day 9. The prompt is "time travel."

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

"_Harry_."

Someone was calling his name, and from the impatience in his tone, it wasn't the first time. Looking up, he saw Tom weaving his way among the tables in the darkened Mess Hall. 

"What are you looking at? You look like you've seen a ghost." Tom was standing by his table now, frowning slightly.

He had seen a ghost. The ghost of a dead timeline. Of a Harry who gave up his life, and perhaps the lives of trillions of others, to save _Voyager_. He didn't know whether to be relieved or horrified. 

Tom reached for the tricorder plugged into Harry's computer - the tricorder containing the recording from his future self. Harry grabbed it before Tom could. He suspected the Temporal Prime Directive applied. 

"Sitting by yourself in the Mess Hall this late means you're brooding," Tom said. "Don't. We tried, it didn't work. We'll find another way."

Harry just looked at Tom. He didn't know what to say. 

"Come on, Harry. Go to bed, or come with me to the holodeck, and I'll buy you a drink. You look like you could use one."

He'd killed the entire crew of _Voyager_. He wondered how they died. Did the ship break up under the stresses, spilling its fragile cargo into space? Did it crash into a planet? Explode when the drive overloaded? He couldn't imagine how he'd lived with what he'd done. Especially...

Tears were welling in his eyes, and Tom noticed. "What's wrong? It's okay. We'll get home eventually."

Harry shook his head. That wasn't what was bothering him. 

"Harry, you have to tell me. Let me help."

He probably shouldn't, but he couldn't bear this alone. He took a deep breath. "Not here." Even at this hour, someone might come in. They needed somewhere private. 

"My quarters?" Tom suggested.

"Mine," Harry said. B'Elanna sometimes let herself into Tom's quarters. 

"Okay." Tom gathered up the computer, and Harry took the tricorder, and they went down to Harry's quarters on Deck 6. Harry ordered the door locked behind them, then paced the room, wondering how much to say.

Tom settled in his favorite spot on the couch. He watched Harry silently.

Harry stopped, facing Tom. "I killed you," he said.

Tom blinked. Clearly, that was the last thing he expected to hear.

"I screwed up the calculations. If you'd used them, everyone on _Voyager_ would have died." 

"Come on, Harry, you can't know that -"

"Yes, yes I can," Harry said. He came and sat next to Tom, taking up the computer Tom had left on the table and connecting the tricorder again. "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I have to tell someone. I got a message. From the future." He turned the screen towards Tom, and started the recording. 

_Hello, Harry. I don't have much time, so listen to me..._

He could see the shock on Tom's face when he saw the 41-year-old Harry. When the brief message ended, Tom shut his eyes for a long moment. Then he put the computer aside, and took Harry into his arms. 

"I killed the entire crew," Harry whispered. "And then I killed who knows how many millions to bring them back." 

"Harry, Harry, don't think about it that way. Everything's all right now. Concentrate on that."

Harry remembered that Tom, of all people, knew how he felt. Tom had killed people, unintentionally. Only three, but they remained dead. Harry wasn't sure which was worse. He'd never imagined himself to be the kind of person who would break the Temporal Prime Directive, and for purely selfish reasons.

"You're shaking," Tom said. "Harry, it's all right. If I could reach across time, I would tell your future self not to let guilt consume him. To look to the future, not torment himself over the past. I would never want to see you do that to yourself." He gestured at the computer, meaning the future Harry. "I'd want you to be happy, enjoy life, and remember the good times."

Did he mean that? Maybe that's what Tom had to tell himself, after Caldik Prime. 

_"You owe me one_," his dead future self had said. What did he owe him? 

_The truth_. He knew it in his bones. The loss of the rest of crew was devastating, but the reason he changed the timeline - erased fifteen years of history - was Tom. He would sacrifice anything for Tom. 

"Tom..." 

Tom looked at him, ready to hear what he had to say.

_Tell him_. That's what he owed his future self. _Tell Tom you love him. _His mistake had killed the entire crew, but it was Tom Paris he broke the Temporal Prime Directive to save._ He deserves to know_. 

But Harry couldn't do it. It would only make things awkward between them. Tom was in love with B'Elanna. They were happy together. He wasn't going to throw a wrench in the works. He just shook his head, and Tom, thankfully, didn't press.

Future Harry would have understood. He, too, would sacrifice anything for Tom. 


End file.
